Heaven-Defying Rebel Sage
Chapter 98: General Aspires to a Rebellion Against Heaven

Chapter 98: Chapter 98: General Aspires to a Rebellion Against Heaven

However, Heaven-Defying and Wukong encountered danger on the fifth level of the tomb, where countless Yin ghosts attacked them, as if intent on destroying gods and Buddhas alike.

Yuan Hong extended his arms, and his Heaven-reaching Rod also grew immensely large, sweeping through the millions of Yin ghosts, immediately causing chaos and uproar among them. Wukong also transformed, becoming a hundred-zhang-tall Divine Monkey, brandishing the Buddha Beating Staff and thrusting it into the midst of the Yin ghosts.

"You are a General!" Yuan Hong bellowed coldly, "I never imagined you survived all those years ago!"

"Heh heh... I was grievously wounded in the Ancient Era by you and others, and after languishing for twenty thousand years, I was injured again by a Saint in the Ancient Times, only recovering seventy to eighty percent of my mana just now! But you seem even more miserable, not even maintaining the cultivation level of a Daluo Golden Immortal? Then just wait for death!" The General laughed uproariously, his location unknown, as his voice thundered towards them from afar.

Wukong shouted, "Excellent! I wondered with whom I had a karmic connection, so it turns out to be this General."

The Heaven-Defying Taoist summoned the Great Revolution Seal, which grew as massive as Mount Tai and pressed into the army of Yin ghosts.

"Boom!"

A loud bang erupted as the revolutionary will burst forth, shattering millions of Yin ghosts. However, they immediately reformed, returning to their original state.

The Heaven-Defying Taoist said gravely, "Unkillable!"

The General laughed boisterously, "Unkillable? Ha ha, ha ha ha! I have prepared twelve hundred thousand years for this day. If you could kill me, wouldn’t my tens of thousands of years of arduous effort go to waste?"

Yuan Hong and Wukong had been fighting for half an hour, already feeling their mana nearly exhausted. They feared that within moments, they would be torn to shreds by the millions of Yin ghosts!

With an angry roar, Wukong’s body was enveloped in a murderous aura. He used the path of slaughter as his foundation to execute the Heavenly Emperor Sword Art. Instantly, millions of Sword Qi burst forth, filling the sky with sword lights that rained down like a downpour, piercing into the army of Yin ghosts. In a flash, another wave of wails arose as millions of ghosts were overturned, but all the Yin ghosts merely dispersed and then began to recongeal.

Wukong yelled, "Let’s go!"

The General sneered, "Where do you think you’re going!"

No sooner had he spoken did he reveal his form, turning into a streak of black light and darting forward, reaching out to grab Wukong’s forehead.

Wukong had been waiting for him to appear and had lured him out with this move. He raised his staff to strike, but the General seemed unafraid. His nails were long and curved like scythes, clashing against the Buddha Beating Staff. Wukong immediately felt his hands go numb, and he involuntarily flew backwards, his palms splitting open.

The General laughed sinisterly and pounced again with lightning speed.

"Xuan Ming, where are you going!"

Wukong heard a soft shout from afar just as a figure dashed in front of him, twirling a spell that unleashed a blizzard. A palm strike hit the General squarely in the chest. Following a scream, the General spat out a mouthful of black blood and was sent flying. However, his nails also grazed the rescuer’s arm, drawing up a gout of fresh blood.

When the rescuer turned around and grabbed Wukong’s wrist, it was to prevent him from continuing to fly backwards.

Wukong saw it was Xuan Ming! He noticed Xuan Ming’s arm was mangled by the General’s nails, and a mix of emotions surfaced in him. He could only say, "You’re injured."

Xuan Ming gave a faint smile and replied, "It’s nothing!"

Having said this, she released Wukong.

The General’s physical body was truly fearsome, able to injure Xuan Ming of the Ancestral Witches. It was clear why he had been a headache for the Saints back in the day.

Yuan Hong let out a light shout and thrust his staff toward the distance. Half the rod disappeared, only to violently reappear before the General’s chest and come crashing down with a clang of metal on metal, spewing sparks as the impact drove the General into the ground, creating a crater thirty feet across.

With a flash of light on Xuan Ming’s arm, the blood flow reversed, and her arm returned to its original state, delicate and smooth. However, that tender skin was such that ordinary magical treasures could hardly leave a scratch on it.

"Ancestral Witch Xuan Ming, I bear you no grudge, yet you insist on creating karmic ties with me. Do you really have a death wish!" The General roared, leaping out of the pit.

Xuan Ming took a step forward, materializing a three-foot-three long Green Edge Sword in her hand, stained with blood and shimmering with a murderous aura. It was forged with the essence of slaughter and had killed countless members of the Demon Tribe during the Witches and Demons War. Her expression cold, she didn’t speak but made a stabbing motion with the Sword technique toward the General’s throat.

In a hurry to dodge, the General flicked his fingertips, sending ten nails flying out like sharp projectiles aimed at Xuan Ming.

Forced to retract her sword, Xuan Ming had to block these incoming nails. Their exchange was as if molten steel met iron, with sparks flying everywhere and large ones falling to the ground.

"General, take this seal!"

Seeing only a shadow beneath him, the General looked up and saw a Great Seal descending upon him.

He shouted, "Even a tiny pearl shines brightly!"

He punched upwards, and a fist-shaped seal formed, striking the Great Revolution Seal with a force that seemed to shatter all spells. The impact made the Great Revolution Seal shake uncontrollably, turning it upside down.

Yuan Hong exclaimed, "This General is formidable, having regained seventy to eighty percent of his past mana, even the Sect Founder might have trouble handling him!"

After speaking, he lifted his staff to aid Xuan Ming. Although his mana was insufficient, his profound understanding of cultivation and knowledge of breaking through the void made him somewhat helpful.

"General, you cur, you’ve harmed my sister, you’re tired of living!" A black light raced in, seeming incredibly fast, and it was none other than Di Jiang.

He revealed his true form with four fleshy wings unfurled, nearly unmatched in speed, save by Saints. Wielding the Reincarnation Pen, he targeted the Niwan Palace of the General!

The General panicked, feeling as if his soul had left his body. The Reincarnation Pen was an Innate Spiritual Treasure, used by the Twelve Ancestral Witches to draw the cycles of Reincarnation with its endless power and laden with inexhaustible Karmic Force. Once affected, he feared he might be dragged into the Six Paths of Reincarnation by this Karmic Force. And those Six Paths of Reincarnation were ferocious, where without realization of one’s true nature, escape was impossible, a realm even Saints dared not enter hastily.

Fortunately, the Reincarnation Pen wasn’t a highly powerful Magical Treasure requiring physical contact to be effective. General raised his hand, and from amongst the millions of Yin souls, he grabbed twenty thousand, and with a casual knead, he turned them into a Yin Thunder, and threw it straight at Di Jiang’s face!

"Boom!"

An explosion sounded, the Yin Thunder burst, dark energy surged forward, penetrating deep into the bones, and Di Jiang was blasted open with flesh tearing and skin splitting, he was sent flying away.

Xuan Ming and Yuan Hong, joining forces, finally managed to deflect all the fingernails flung out by General, but upon Xuan Ming’s light shout, he said, "Form the Capital Heavenly Divine Slayer Formation!"

Instantly, the other ten Ancestral Witches rushed forward, each revealing their true forms, ready to form the formation.

Upon hearing that the Twelve Ancestral Witches were about to set up the Capital Heavenly Divine Slayer Formation, General paled with horror. With a wave of his sleeve, gathering millions of Yin souls, he said, "I have important matters to attend to and cannot accompany you further!"

With both hands outstretched, he actually tore straight through the void of the Ancient Tomb and escaped.

Xuan Ming, reflecting upon his own inability to tear apart such a special space, realized that although General had only recovered seventy to eighty percent of his power, his abilities exceeded his own! The karmic force entangled was no small matter, and he feared trouble was brewing for the future.

Di Jiang shook his head to regain composure, his body shimmered with golden light, and his physical body recovered. Once again, he transformed into his human form, and with a frown, he said, "So it was General who’s been stealing the souls from my Underworld!"

Xuan Ming, however, said, "The souls he took, it’s not simple."

At this moment, Zhu Rong was looking at Wukong.

Zhu Rong said with a smile, "Big brother, you did say, the next time we encounter this fellow, you will definitely not stop me!"

Di Jiang nodded and said, "I did indeed say that."

Wukong and Heaven-Defying Taoist both could only offer a bitter smile and salute Zhu Rong in respect.

Xuan Ming stepped forward in front of Zhu Rong and said, "Zhu Rong, don’t cause trouble!"

Zhu Rong smiled eerily and said, "Xuan Ming, I knew you would come out to stop me! I just wanted to see if it was really so. He he... Big brother was indeed correct."

Xuan Ming’s gaze shifted to Di Jiang.

Immediately, Di Jiang felt a chill run through his body, as he tilted his head to the sky as if he had discovered something fascinating.

After watching Di Jiang for a while, and noticing Wukong’s gaze upon him, Xuan Ming felt his face flush and his heart pound. This spectacle left the other eleven Ancestral Witches dumbstruck, their eyeballs nearly popping out of their sockets. However, they dared not keep looking, fearful that Xuan Ming’s anger would ignite. Among the Twelve Ancestral Witches, if there was one who carried the most commanding presence, the most intimidating, it was certainly not Di Jiang, but Xuan Ming...

"Uh... Xuan Ming, you mentioned earlier that General taking so many souls was no trivial matter. What could he be trying to do?" asked Di Jiang.

Only then did Xuan Ming come back to his senses, pondering for a moment before saying, "I’m afraid he may be attempting something against the Heavenly Dao!"

Yuan Hong asked, "Against the Heavenly Dao?" He then let out a cold laugh, "General doesn’t have the capacity for that, I presume."

Xuan Ming frowned and said, "Those Yin souls couldn’t be killed... He has a grand scheme afoot, let’s go out and see."

The Heaven-Defying Taoist performed a somersault into Wukong’s body, an act that astonished all the Ancestral Witches. To think that Taiyi Golden Immortal would cut off all notions? It was truly inconceivable.

Wukong bowed towards Xuan Ming and the others, saying, "Thank you for your assistance, Ancestral Witches."

Xuan Ming replied coldly, "It wasn’t to help you. General stole three hundred and sixty thousand souls from my Underworld! We only came to settle the score with him."

Wukong said, "Hmm."

Zhu Rong, however, mocked, "Do you believe that?"

Wukong, helpless, replied, "I do."

Xuan Ming merely shifted his gaze towards Zhu Rong, which immediately silenced him from uttering another word.

Di Jiang then said, "Enough! No more idle talk, let’s hurry out. I have a bad feeling."

Xuan Ming also said, "I too am feeling a premonition..."

Wukong, too, felt something ominous, especially as the nine hundred paths that had been refined from the Divine Sense of Di Jun on his Golden Core were throbbing more and more violently!

Within the Ancient Tomb, there might be a hundred million Yin souls; with General hiding among them and still secretly snatching more souls, it was evident a grand scheme was brewing! His emergence into the world was unlikely to be simple.

Zhu Rong urged, "Since we’re acting on a whim, let’s not waste words. Hurry out! Let’s form the Formation and tear the space apart."

Xuan Ming and Di Jiang among others nodded.

The twelve gathered together, each displaying their spells, and immediately the skies darkened, and fierce winds howled. They didn’t reveal their true forms, but the formation they set up was like a condensed version of the Capital Heavenly Divine Slayer Formation.

Di Jiang raised the Reincarnation Pen into the air, and instantly it tore open the void, through which the twelve of them directly emerged.

Wukong and Yuan Hong also took this opportunity to rush out of the Ancient Tomb.